Using business in your sending, welcoming or going ministry
While missiologists and business experts sometimes wrangle over precise definitions of “business as mission" (See the PDF.), business and mission have always coincided in the Kingdom of God. Remember the accounts of the 18th-century Moravians in our Perspectives Reader and sessions on the History of the World Christian Movement.
Thousands of years ago, God told the alien Israelites, captive in Persia, to do business—and so get involved in local society and bring peace in His name:
Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.... And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
—Jeremiah 29:4-7
Later Paul the Apostle explained the strategy of his tentmaking vocation in a church-planting setting (See Acts 18:1-4):
Don’t we have the right to food and drink? ...Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living? ...The Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights.
—I Corinthians 9
• Is your role for now Sending?
Consider shaping your Marketplace Ministry business to contribute heavily to missions—providing free or discounted services to Kingdom workers, arranging logistics or communication packages for goers, etc.
• Are you a Welcomer?
Consider starting a business that provides some of your livelihood and allows you the natural connections of the marketplace with immigrants, refugees, foreign business travelers and tourists and—by hiring part-timers or interns—even international students.
• Are you Going as a missionary?
This is the core realm of the latest business as mission (BAM) movement. There is plenty of dialogue, orientation, short-term opportunities, articles, books, advice and implementation of this long-term strategy for blessing the nations. And, frankly, we at the Perspectives Study Program office aren’t the experts! BAM seems simple, but is actually a highly complex topic since it involves all the disciplines of business, missiolgy and practical missions all in the context of the global market.
The New Frontier of Business As Mission
But we know the experts—and so present this unit of Post-Perspectives as a signpost pointing toward the best resources.
To continue reading this unit, download the PDF
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